The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-12-08
Bringing Facts to Light.
Wilmington Messenger.1 ]

Wilmington Messenger.l
1t has been said by North Carroll
mans themselves that they are among
the slowest people in the world to lei
the world know what they have done
and what has been done on their soil.
This may he true, and yet in the COM
pass of a brief article, written in little
more than half an hour, some very
striking historical facts may be men
toned, facts brought out by Nortl,
Carolina writers and intended to divest
the State as far as possible Of the char
acter it has at home and abroad oi
stolid modesty or inertia with respect
to its own fame We doubt not that
other facts equally prominent, or near
ly so, will occur to some of our jour
nalistic brethren. They owe it to their
position as enlighteners to make such
publication of them as may seem to
them fit.
The most recent invetigation is that
of Mr.. Collier Cobb, who, in report
ing for the State Chronicle the proceed
ings of the setting up in Boston of a
monument to Left, the Norseman, son
of Eric, and discoverer Of America,
showed from the Sagas that the coast
of North Carolina had been visited by
him and that he found a white mans
land or greater Ireland in the vicinity
of Washington and Pamlico Sound.
Other stories from the same source are
epitomized, and the record carried
back as far as the second century,
The Messenger remembers with pleas
ure that our elegant and ingenious
Col. Waddell years ago went into this
subject and constructed very inter-
esting lecture which he delivered at
several places with ecLat; and his lee
ture covered much of what is now re-
peated by Mr.. Cobb. Mr.. Bancroft,
in the latest edition of his History of
the United States, omits all that he
had previously written with regard to
the Morse discovery. Other learned
writers have entertained doubts. But
Palfrey and Winsor have not hesitated
to treat the matter seriously, as Hum
boldt did.
A Chinese writer, name not remem-
bered, records the fact that in the
sixth century Chinese admiral took
his squadron across the Pacific Ocean,
touching on the coast of South Amer
ica (presumaply Peru and finding a
flourishing civilization, his description
of which leads to the supposition that
the Incas had long passed the stage of
barbarism. But this does not concern
North Carolina, and North Carolina
writer's, and we beg pardon for the di-
gression. 1t incidentally bears wit
ness, however, to the knowledge Of
the New World possessed by some of
the people Of the old.
The Messengers Washington cor
respondent. too, as much as five years
ago, reported having had glimpse,
through an old narrative {" Virginia
Brittannia'D, written by Secretary
Strachey, of the early: period of the
colony at Jamestown and published in
the Hakluyt collection, of the lost
Roanoke Island colony after the traces
recorded Of it in our own histories.
But Strachey merely hints at knowl-
edge derived from Indians and which
he wove into a narrative or descrip-
ton. The book containing this was
lost, it is believed. What was stated
IN the " Virginia Britannia" appeared
in the Messenger together with slight
notice of the erudite secretary. The
substance of the account of the Indians
as alluded to by the author of the book
named was that the Indian emperor
in Virginia-the Powhatan- became
Jealous of the colonists and ordered
one of his Satraps to take them up the
Roanoke river, and afterward ordered
their execution. They were not all
destroyed, however, but intermarried
with the tribe among whom they lived
and built two-story houses with Chin
neys. Their offspring had blue eyes.
The Meclenburg Declaration shows
that North Carolina was more than a
year in advance of the country in the
assertion of independence. But this
is not the only claim of the sort which
can be made with proof. North Caro-
lima was the first of the colonies to in
struct its delegates in the Continental
Congress to vote for the independence
Of the colonies. Although this is a
we'll established fact, to be found in
Forces american ArcAUfs, and in
files of newspapers of the time, some
eminent Virginia writers OF history
and biography claim the honor for
their own State.
The North Carolina war Of the Rev
olution was the first formidable resist
anoe to royal authority after the pro-
mitigation of the Stamp Act, and
therefore the first scene in the noble
drama Of the revolution.
l. a. oanorallu understood that Hon